Intersections of Empire, Post-Empire, and Diaspora: De-Imperializing Lusophone Studies

Cristiana Bastos

doi:10.21471/jls.v5i2.367

Abstract

The present article opens with a generic plea for the de-imperialization of Lusophone studies. A de-imperial turn should allow researchers to explore more thoroughly the experiences of diaspora and exile that an empire-centered history and its spin-offs have obfuscated; it should also help to de-essentialize depictions of Portuguese heritage and culture shaped by these narratives. Such a turn promises to address the multiple identifications, internal diversities, and racialized inequalities produced by the making and unmaking of empire. My contribution consists of a few ethnographic-historic case studies collected at the intersections of empire, post-empire, and diaspora. These include nineteenthcentury diasporic movements that brought Portuguese subjects to competing empires; past and present celebrations of heritage in diasporic contexts; culture wars around representations; and current directions in post-imperial celebrations and reparations.

Highlights

The present article opens with a generic plea for the de-imperialization of Lusophone studies
I suggest that expanding our scope beyond the geographies of the Portuguese empire will enrich and rescue some of the current discussions on identity and heritage, tradition and change, centrality and peripherality, dependency and development, racism and Lusotropicalism, gender, generation, as well as other issues
Its map is replicated in the imagined community of Lusofonia or CPLP, which includes the nations, citizens, and residents of Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, and some putative strategic partners that have entered CPLP regardless of language

Summary

Introduction

The present article opens with a generic plea for the de-imperialization of Lusophone studies. More than just collating those separate streams to enhance their visibility for a wider audience, I aim to promote the cross-analysis of loosely connected cases in order to develop new analytical tools that might help sort the social categories generated in the process, the communities formed, the dynamic production of Portuguese identifications, and their intersections with representations of empire.

Results

Conclusion